Early entry for Ariel's Grotto Breakfast?

[Brewmeister]

This May will be our first trip to DCA (or even DL for that matter), and I have a question about the Ariel's Grotto Breakfast?

We have reservations for 9:40am, but the park opens at 10:00am that day. From reading up on the DIS, I know that we can get into DCA by about 9:30, but it sounded like the Paradise Pier area is still roped off until 10:00am still.

How do we actually get to the restaurant by 9:40 then? Is there an entry point like for the Minnie and friend's breakfast at DL, or do we simply go to the rope drop CMs and tell them about our reservations? Or is the Ariel's still accessible before rope drop?

I'm sure that I'll have more questions to ask by the start of May if I can't find the answers by then.....the DIS search engine leaves a bit to be desired.

Thanks!
-Brew

 

[mama2dutchies]

WHen you made the reservation they should of told you the procedure.

We have a reservation at the plaza in and I was told to go directly to gates 1-2 and tell them where we need to be.
I would call dinning and they will tell you the entrance point.

 

[granismith]

I am wondering this too as we have the same reservation time, hopefully someone knows.

 

[Brewmeister]

WHen you made the reservation they should of told you the procedure.

We have a reservation at the plaza in and I was told to go directly to gates 1-2 and tell them where we need to be.
I would call dinning and they will tell you the entrance point.

Hmmm....I must have sounded like I knew what I was doing when I made the reservations thanks to all of the info from the DIS. She probably assumed that I knew the procedure. I'll give them a call soon. Thanks.

I also have reservations for the Plaza Inn for the 7th, which turned out to be the morning of the Pirates premier! Because of that, the park will have been open for almost an hour before our seating time.

-Brew

 

[LoveMyBeautifulGift]

When I was there 2 weeks ago, those who had reservations for Ariel's Grotto were entering at the GCH entrance and bypassing the people waiting at the rope for entrance to get to TSMM (they even had a gap in the rope just past GRR just to let them in)...

 

[Raindown]

I entered the park at 9:30 and headed through Condor Flats towards the GCH. There is a rope around GRR. Told the security guy posted there and he let me through.

 

[pixiewings71]

We once had a reservation for bfast at AG at 8:10 am, the park didn't open until 9 am. It was not a problem at all, we simply found the CM who was letting people with reservations in, told them our name and party size, they checked the list and we were escorted to AG from there. It was very fast and easy and the CM escorting us even waited for us to put our stuff in a locker. It was a December trip, we had coats and didn't want to carry them because we didn't them right then. It should be very easy, just find the CM and let them know you have a reservation...I don't know what "gate" you will go to tho.

 

[vew-tori]

We had the 9:40 reservations 2 weeks ago too. DH called the day before and was told to tell the CM at the entrance that we had reservations. We had done this before at WDW so thought nothing of it. The CM was so rude! He told us we just needed to get in line and wait like everyone else. DH was firious and called dining to let them know. They told him if we weren't there 10 minutes after our time they would give our spot away and they were sorry we were running late. We were not late. It was 9:15. He was not happy! At 9:30 they started letting people in and the line we did just as was posted here. We walked by Condor Flats, down to the rope by GCH, told the CM there and he let us right in. We got there right at 9:40 and were seated soon. DH settled down and we had a good time.

If it had been explained to us that we would need to enter thru the line then tell the CM at the rope drop we would have been fine. We were just under the impression that they would have a specified turnstile but they didn't. My DH is a stickler for being on time. Knowing the ins and outs would have certainly made for a better start to the day. I hope you have an easy entrance and a great experience!

 

[spiderdust]

Interesting, we were just wondering this very thing today!

 

[Brewmeister]

If it had been explained to us that we would need to enter thru the line then tell the CM at the rope drop we would have been fine. We were just under the impression that they would have a specified turnstile but they didn't. My DH is a stickler for being on time. Knowing the ins and outs would have certainly made for a better start to the day. I hope you have an easy entrance and a great experience!

Thanks for the heads up on this. I am much the same in that I'm a stickler for time, and I need to know the processes ahead of time.

Thanks all for the info!

-Brew